S42.E18: Jimmy Fallon / Harry Styles

[VCRTracking]

I enjoyed Harry Styles' performances especially the 1st song. The One Direction songs I've heard before were all right as boy band pop goes but I really like his new solo stuff. He's got a good voice. Also like that he had a female pianist and drummer.

[peeayebee]

7 hours ago, Peace 47 said:

I thought the line was good, but what I actually most enjoyed was the audience absolutely loving it.  I didn't think the line was extremely funny, just a solid joke to make me smile, but it was a pleasant surprise that the audience appreciated it that much.

Yes, it was surprising to me when the audience applauded because I thought I was the only one who loved the joke that much. :D

[Phishbulb]

On 4/16/2017 at 1:35 AM, vb68 said:

He has booked a pilot...I think we were talking about it in the Cast Discussion thread.   And I agree. For him to leave on this episode would be sad.

I missed this, but I guess Jacob gave a little shoutout to his "best friend Seth".  Aww.   (I honestly thought they had retired this character.)

He also referenced his relatives "John" (Solomon), "Marika" (Sawyer), and "Zach" (Kanin), all of whom were credited as writers on this episode. Also an "Uncle Simon", which could be a reference to Simon Rich maybe?

I can't help feeling they did this Jacob piece just in case this ends up being Vanessa's final episode (the last time she did Jacob was 2 years ago).

Edited April 17, 2017 by Phishbulb

[LennieBriscoe]

The entire "Ex-Boyfriend" skit was to set up the punchline. SNL naturally assumed the viewing audience would understand its allusion.

[Tara Ariano]

In case you missed it, here's the Previously.TV post on the episode!

Watch Bits From Jimmy Fallon's Return to Saturday Night Live

Before It Fades Away CompletelyDespite mostly forgettable material, there were still a few highlights nestled in his latest SNL appearance.

[rmontro]

On that second song that Harry Styles did, the guitar riff was directly lifted from the old Badfinger song Baby Blue.  It was so identical I found it distracting.  Unless it was intentional, like in the old days of sampling, like Puff Daddy (which I doubt).

Wasn't all that impressed with the episode.  Jimmy Fallon is probably spread a little thin with his Tonight Show job.  The Boston teens callback was amazingly devoid of humor, I thought.  I'm always up for a "Barbarino" era Travolta impression though.

[Peace 47]

1 hour ago, peeayebee said:

Yes, it was surprising to me when the audience applauded because I thought I was the only one who loved the joke that much. :D

Occasionally, the live audience gets in the way of the show: they may scream too much (like that wrapping paper sketch years ago where Aidy even made a comment in the sketch about it) or they may be slow on the uptake for a joke and then the timing gets thrown off with delayed laughter.

But there are also times when they enhance my viewing experience, and this was one of those times (one other that comes to mind being the "Meet Your Second Wife" sketch when the audience was almost shrieking in horror as they were laughing at the progressively younger second wives).  It's just nice to hear people enjoying themselves.

[VCRTracking]

Yeah I agree with Andy on this. He was standing right next to Jimmy in the final goodbye and he didn't even get mentioned:

[fastiller]

I think Fallon did point out Nile Rodgers during the opening song.  I don't think he mentioned him by name, but I seem to recall him enthusiastically pointing at Rodgers in a "look who joined us!" way.  But Andy Richter's point does still stand: living legend deserves a name-check mention.

[vb68]

Quote

The Boston teens callback was amazingly devoid of humor, I thought.  

Do we know if Tina wrote it or had a hand in writing it? If she didn't, that could be why it was lackluster. She always wrote those.

Edited April 17, 2017 by vb68

[Tachi Rocinante]

On 4/16/2017 at 3:09 AM, kib said:

I can only imagine the depravity of photographs Fallon must possess of Lorne Michaels that allow him to hold a job with NBC...  The human equivalent of Gerber's Carrot Puree. 

No, that honor belongs to Fred Armisen, who stayed years beyond his usefulness and got lots of airtime for his collection of dead hooker photos.

Also, i could swear Jimmy introduced Nile at the end.

[Phishbulb]

1 hour ago, vb68 said:

Do we know if Tina wrote it or had a hand in writing it? If she didn't, that could be why it was lackluster. She always wrote those.

Yes, Tina was also listed in the list of writers in the end credits. 

[Milburn Stone]

Does anyone know, what was the reason they did a live-from-coast-to-coast broadcast? Was that supposed to add extra excitement for the West Coast? Or did they think the West Coast would prefer seeing the show at 8:30 Pacific for some reason? Or what?

I thought Weekend Update was the highlight of an otherwise drab show.

[mortonsalt]

1 hour ago, Tachi Rocinante said:

Also, i could swear Jimmy introduced Nile at the end.

I thought I heard him thank Rodgers too.

[Omar G.]

1 hour ago, Milburn Stone said:

Does anyone know, what was the reason they did a live-from-coast-to-coast broadcast? Was that supposed to add extra excitement for the West Coast? Or did they think the West Coast would prefer seeing the show at 8:30 Pacific for some reason? Or what?

I thought Weekend Update was the highlight of an otherwise drab show.

I think it just doesn't make sense any longer, in the era of live Tweeting and YouTube, to tape-delay when there may be an audience for it at 8:30.  Does anyone know if they also show it again at the old time on the west coast? That would make sense to me, is giving people the option of watching it in either slot.

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/tv/la-et-st-saturday-night-live-on-the-west-coast-20170415-story.html

One byproduct, if I recall correctly, is that they'll no longer be able to sub in a version of a sketch from dress rehearsal that might have played better for the west coast. That's been known to happen in the past, not sure if they do that anymore.  

Edited April 17, 2017 by Omar G.

[Milburn Stone]

1 hour ago, Omar G. said:

I think it just doesn't make sense any longer, in the era of live Tweeting and YouTube, to tape-delay when there may be an audience for it at 8:30.  Does anyone know if they also show it again at the old time on the west coast? That would make sense to me, is giving people the option of watching it in either slot.

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/tv/la-et-st-saturday-night-live-on-the-west-coast-20170415-story.html

One byproduct, if I recall correctly, is that they'll no longer be able to sub in a version of a sketch from dress rehearsal that might have played better for the west coast. That's been known to happen in the past, not sure if they do that anymore.  

Thanks for the info, Omar G. To answer one of your own questions, the article at the very end says that the "live" show will re-air at 11:30 Pacific as it always has.

[vb68]

4 hours ago, mortonsalt said:

I thought I heard him thank Rodgers too.

I know I did. I didn't know it was him until the goodbyes.

[Kel Varnsen]

I think the funniest thing was the camera catching the top of Jimmy's head as he ran from on side of the stage to the other during family feud.

[helenamonster]

I can't believe the Family Feud sketch had two John Travoltas and zero Scientology jokes.

Also, David Blaine is not a hot ticket item in 20-fucking-17. Kristen Stewart is also kinda stretching it, even if she just (inexplicably) hosted a few months ago.

I thought the Legally Blonde sketch was a middle school musical, not a high school one, which made it even funnier to me. The eighth graders put on a musical every year at my middle school, and my year was especially terrible because we wrote our own. I have the whole thing on DVD and it is pretty much exactly what this sketch was. I would have laughed if I wasn't having PTSD flashbacks.

Slow week in the writers' room if they drag out both Jacob and Chandling. Does Kyle have some kind of anger management problem that makes the rest of the cast/writers afraid to tell him that the bit never really lands and never will? That is the only explanation I can think of for why they keep going back to that well.

I'm so mad because I was so excited to come here and snark about Harry Styles's solo career (because, really?) and Lord help me but that was some catchy shit, especially the first song. I don't recognize myself.

I never really hated Jimmy all that much but his shtick is definitely starting to wear out its welcome as far as I'm concerned. I realize in a world where a lot of late-night television is focused on very serious subjects that he's a nice alternative, but there's something anachronistic about him now that we're barreling towards the end times.

Edited April 18, 2017 by helenamonster

[ktwo]

Quote

I can't believe the Family Feud sketch had two John Travoltas and zero Scientology jokes.

I can, because Fallon didn't want to piss off Travolta or any of the other celebrity $cientologists. Those fuckers have no sense of humor.

[helenamonster]

Eh, good point. SNL hasn't been afraid to pick on them (they did that great Neurotology bit a couple years ago), but I know Jimmy likes to keep it safe and vanilla (45 hair rub, anybody?).

[Cookie1981]

I am one of those adult women who is way too old to love Harry Styles but there I was on my couch watching the show live for the first time in ages and cringing through every sketch and every weird face he pulled while singing (he did sound great except for the regrettable falsetto that he can't pull off live). He  seems incredibly well liked in the industry and I really like his voice and find him ridiculously charismatic so I hope he succeeds. I did think his skit acting was pretty awkward, Justin Timberlake's personality makes my skin crawl but I love him on SNL and I felt like they were trying that route with Harry but he felt out of place to me. Every interview or clip I've ever seen of Harry he is extremely relaxed and charming and I thought he was strangely devoid of that in skits and while singing but maybe nerves got the best of him being without his former band mates for the first time ever on the show. When they first showed Family Feud I thought Kate was playing present day Harry and Harry was playing Mick and I laughed. Her Kristen Stewart was pretty great but I would have loved to see her play Harry as they kind of both have the megawatt smiles with dimples but he also has a super deep voice that she might not have been able to pull off like she does for Bieber. I usually really enjoy that skit but it was a big meh for me that night. 

As for Jimmy and the rest of the show, I thought there were some good bits (the United/Pepsi and Spicer using Veggie Tales for his Passover story) and I was excited to see Rachel Dratch, but yikes, was she the only person willing to show up for Jimmy? I thought their revisit of those characters would have made me laugh way more than it did since I now live in the area and they are so spot on it kills me sometimes but it just didn't land for me. The rest of the episode was fine, not great. Leslie's "Manchester by the Sea" crack did made me laugh. 

Did they really call Jared Kushner a twink in the opening sketch or did I mishear? I have zero nice things to say about him but I really was kind of shocked they would go there as it kind of just sounded like a homophobic jab more than anything.

[nowandlater]

19 hours ago, Milburn Stone said:

Does anyone know, what was the reason they did a live-from-coast-to-coast broadcast? Was that supposed to add extra excitement for the West Coast? Or did they think the West Coast would prefer seeing the show at 8:30 Pacific for some reason? Or what?

I thought Weekend Update was the highlight of an otherwise drab show.

 

We West Coasters are spoiled. The Academy Awards finish at 9:10 pm. Most NFL primetime games are done in the 8 o'clock hour.

And now we get live SNL.

The problem with Saturday Night Live is that it's live late on a Saturday night.

Saturday night is the only night of the week that I have free. (I'm too tired from work on Friday nights and Sunday night is a work night.)

So waiting up till 11:30 on Saturday night, when I'd rather be doing something else, is a chore. To have to wait till 1 am to be done with it is annoying.

But SNL is can't-miss TV, and it's better suited for live TV.

There were ways of getting around it.

I used to watch an illegal live stream of SNL at 8:30 pm. But it was terribly buggy, and would crash every 2 minutes.

There was also the option of watching videos of the skits before the show airs. Sometimes SNL puts sketches on YouTube before the show airs on the West Coast.

In the past few years, Mediaite.com has posted the opening sketch on its website within 30 minutes of its airing. So I'd watch it there. (I'm sure NBC isn't too happy about that.)

Then there was a period of time when I'd avoid the internet until I could watch the West Coast airing. Yet that's impossible during college football season, which occupies Saturday nights....I remember one night I vowed to only visit sports web sites on a college football Saturday, so that I wouldn't be spoiled about SNL. So I click on Deadspin around 9 o'clock, and there's an article and video of Larry David as Bernie Sanders for the first time.

The great thing about Twitter is that it forced all this. (The Oscars stopped the tape delay before Twitter.) It was absurd, for instance, that the Emmys would be tape delayed if you live in Hollywood. The Grammys didn't quit with the tape delay until, I believe, last year.

And I'm glad the SNL domino fell. The live aspect is, at least to me, a major part of the viewing experience.

[Hanahope]

So I obviously missed the vast majority of the Jimmy Fallon years on SNL because I had no idea who Sully and Zasu were and I didn't find the sketch all that funny.  Yeah, yeah, Boston accents are different and sometimes hard to understand.  

I thought the Legal Blonde musical bit was hilarious, especially when the one performer fell off the stage, and then the wires, omg.  The Time traveling family fued was good too, though a bit too much Jimmy.  Maybe they should have used the other actors a bit more during the "stalling" times.  Part of me was thinking what would have been good is if they had a "Beyonce" for the 2017, since they had "Diana Ross" for 1977.

WU was really lacking.  A couple of good bits (cake).  the jewish boy joke went on a little too long I thought, and the other 'comedian,' yeesh!  and while i get that's the joke, I don't care for that kind of joke.

I sat through the entire ex-boyfriend bit only because I knew there was a punchline at the end.  Otherwise, I was ready to hit the FF.  Turtle shirt was weird, basketball background was ok.

Old NY, not bad I guess, except I was kindof getting tired of nearly every sketch involving music by that time.

Finally, the political sketches are always pretty decent.  MM is so good as Spicey, thought the reference to NorthKorea and last Easter a bit scary.  And I don't think Bannon is going to give up as easy as they made it look, though it was pretty clear Kushner would win since he married daddy's favorite.

[helenamonster]

2 hours ago, Cookie1981 said:

Did they really call Jared Kushner a twink in the opening sketch or did I mishear? I have zero nice things to say about him but I really was kind of shocked they would go there as it kind of just sounded like a homophobic jab more than anything.

Yep, he called Jared a twink. There are rumors (completely unsubstantiated, as far as I can tell) that Ivanka is his beard (knowingly or unknowingly).

I also really loved how they had Spicy use Veggie Tales, of all things, to explain the story of Passover. And Melissa and the real Spicy have sort of melded in my mind as the same person, like Tina and Palin lo those many moons ago.

Forgot to mention how solid the United/Pepsi sketch was. I love that they kept it short (live sketches have this compulsive need to be at least four minutes or longer) with two solid punchlines that they didn't beat to death. Cecily really stood out, too, with her reactions.

[Omar G.]

17 hours ago, Milburn Stone said:

Thanks for the info, Omar G. To answer one of your own questions, the article at the very end says that the "live" show will re-air at 11:30 Pacific as it always has.

Seems like a win for the west coast all around!

[Fabricationary]

This had to be the inspiration for the Legally Blonde middle school musical sketch.

[Hanahope]

hahah. OMG!  That was great!

[OhioSongbird]

Hubby and I loved this show.  A couple of the usual clunkers but all in all we thought really good.  We are both Jimmy Fallon fans and have been watching SNL since the first show waaaay back.

Yep.....we're old farts.

[Kel Varnsen]

10 hours ago, Cookie1981 said:

Did they really call Jared Kushner a twink in the opening sketch or did I mishear? I have zero nice things to say about him but I really was kind of shocked they would go there as it kind of just sounded like a homophobic jab more than anything.

Well it was Baldwin playing Trump, and i am pretty sure Trump is not the type of guy to be above making those types of insults, so it's in character.

[jschoolgirl]

"Jared" appeared to have stuffed his pants.

[JZL]

So . . . two weeks off then down to the wire with Chris Pine, Melissa McCarthy, and Dwayne Johnson. 

I'm not sure how the ratings have been, and the MG's have sucked worse than ever, but the cast, hosts, and writing have been awesome (knock wood).

[VCRTracking]

On 4/19/2017 at 8:16 PM, JZL said:

So . . . two weeks off then down to the wire with Chris Pine, Melissa McCarthy, and Dwayne Johnson. 

I'm not sure how the ratings have been, and the MG's have sucked worse than ever, but the cast, hosts, and writing have been awesome (knock wood).

Hopefully we won't have another writer's strike like we did 10 years ago. Dwayne Johnson AKA The Rock was supposed to host for the second time back then too along with Amy Winehouse as musical guest. The Rock would host again but Winehouse would never get to be on SNL before dying in 2011.

Edited April 21, 2017 by VCRTracking

[JZL]

I keep forgetting it's already been 10 years.  They should tab the vote on Monday evening.  One difference this time around is the rise of the streaming services waiting in the wings to take up the slack if they do vote to strike.  The contract isn't actually up til May 1st.

[shantown]

1 hour ago, JZL said:

I keep forgetting it's already been 10 years.  They should tab the vote on Monday evening.  One difference this time around is the rise of the streaming services waiting in the wings to take up the slack if they do vote to strike.  The contract isn't actually up til May 1st.

Shows on streaming services still have writers though, so it's not like one platform would have new content when the other would't. I guess streaming services aren't bound to a September-May season though so they could begin producing the shows again sooner. Am I misunderstanding your comment maybe?

[Irlandesa]

4 hours ago, shantown said:

Shows on streaming services still have writers though, so it's not like one platform would have new content when the other would't. I guess streaming services aren't bound to a September-May season though so they could begin producing the shows again sooner. Am I misunderstanding your comment maybe?

Exactly.  I believe their writers share a union.  The only somewhat advantage streaming services might have is that they seem to pick up foreign shows to either stream or advertise as a co-production.  I imagine there are shows that haven't made it here yet.  In addition, they might have planned and put shows in production for the eventuality of this strike.  Their start times aren't as fixed as broadcast.

But for the most part, they will be affected too.

[JZL]

4 hours ago, shantown said:

Shows on streaming services still have writers though, so it's not like one platform would have new content when the other would't. I guess streaming services aren't bound to a September-May season though so they could begin producing the shows again sooner. Am I misunderstanding your comment maybe?

Not at all.  However, the streamers load up a whole season and dump it all at once, so the strike will delay their content but the impact of a writers strike is more easily spread over time. 

The way opposite extreme of this is the daily network soaps that are written and produced and aired relatively quickly so a strike grinds them to a screeching halt.

The other thing is that the streamers rely a lot on stockpiles of decades worth of content which is virtually continually available to their customers whee the networks' content is more temporary and needing to be renewed/refreshed. 

And streamers rely on subscriptions which probably won't be effected by the strike (in fact the strike may increase subscriptions) whereas the networks probably can't charge top advertising dollars for a plethora of re-runs.

All that said, if this one lasts as long as the 2007 one, (~ 4 mos.) everyone will feel it at some point. 

Edited April 22, 2017 by JZL

[helenamonster]

Assuming this strike is like the last one, the main stipulation seems to be that the union members can't actually write anything while the strike is ongoing. Shows can still be in production, but no writing can be done. There's that one random episode of 30 Rock that doesn't have a title because the writers' strike happened before they could give it one. They could still film the episode (I remember reading somewhere about how Tina Fey had to be careful to only be on set in an acting capacity, not a writing one) but even coming up with a title would be considered crossing the picket line.

Luckily for network shows that run on a standard September-May, 22-episode schedule, it's getting towards the end of the season so most if not all of the remaining episodes are likely "in the can." A lot of cable shows, or really most shows that do 13-episode seasons, should also be in the clear because they film all the episodes before releasing them. And as JZL mentioned, any streaming show that's already good to go will likely be dropped on schedule. The people who really get screwed are late-night talk shows (who write all their material the day of taping) and, of course, this show, because do all their writing the week of.

[Inquisitionist]

On ‎4‎/‎22‎/‎2017 at 1:37 PM, helenamonster said:

Assuming this strike is like the last one, the main stipulation seems to be that the union members can't actually write anything while the strike is ongoing. Shows can still be in production, but no writing can be done. There's that one random episode of 30 Rock that doesn't have a title because the writers' strike happened before they could give it one. They could still film the episode (I remember reading somewhere about how Tina Fey had to be careful to only be on set in an acting capacity, not a writing one) but even coming up with a title would be considered crossing the picket line.

It's called Episode 210, and it's one of my favorites, featuring Tracy, Kenneth, Jenna, Grizz and Dot Com singing Midnight Train to Georgia.

[Ms Blue Jay]

Everyone seems to take Fallon extremely differently.  I wasn't Fallon's biggest fan on SNL (I was the biggest fan of Will Ferrell's and Tracy Morgan's, however) but now that he hosts the Tonight Show, I absolutely love him on it.  I think he and Steve Higgins are so funny together.  The last time I liked a late night TV show host was Conan in the 90s, and maybe Letterman, but I barely remember (talking 20 years ago).  I've never been able to sit through a talk show host's monologue or show otherwise.  

Edited April 28, 2017 by Ms Blue Jay

[Ms Blue Jay]

On 4/17/2017 at 1:42 PM, Tachi Rocinante said:

Also, i could swear Jimmy introduced Nile at the end.

100% did, and screamed his name loudest as well.  Thanked Harry, then Rachel, then Alec, then screamed NILLLLEEEEEE ROGERSSSSSSSSSSSS.

[Bruinsfan]

On 4/17/2017 at 10:56 PM, helenamonster said:

Slow week in the writers' room if they drag out both Jacob and Chandling. Does Kyle have some kind of anger management problem that makes the rest of the cast/writers afraid to tell him that the bit never really lands and never will? That is the only explanation I can think of for why they keep going back to that well.

Even if he does I can't imagine anyone being intimidated by a raging Kyle Mooney, it'd be like being scared of Eddie Deezen.